Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 14

Day: 3159

Days Left: 2321

Lives Saved: 17

Henry was both impressed and surprised with how calm and organised everything was. Likely due to the fact that if you were caught misbehaving and causing trouble then you would say goodbye to ever getting citizenship for the Warren. The process took numerous days, the first part just agonizingly waiting in the long queue just to have your name and details recorded along with a skilled artist who drew everyone's portrait. This initial part spanned over a week due to the number of applicants and to give everyone ample time to decide and register though most people lined up on the first day anyway.

After another week, a shortlist of potential candidates was announced and fortunately Henry was on it. According to rumours those that had been cut had been sighted either misbehaving or shown little control over their masks and in some cases due to their brand and what crime they had committed to be thrown down into the Eternal Abyss in the first place.

The second stage was a test, specifically regarding their mask. One by one, those who had been shortlisted were taken into a pitched tent where inside were multiple guards. A few of them Henry recognised from the blood moon, there was the captain of the guard- a humanoid tiger monster, and the amphibian creature who stood at the ready to use its glowing antenna that could entrance and put monsters to sleep if needed.

The test involved showing how much control Henry had with his mask transformation and if he lost himself to blood lust if provoked or stressed. Psyching himself up, Henry donned his mask and transformed, his body becoming slightly taller and skinnier, and bony to an unnatural and uncanny proportions. His dark darkened, getting greasy and growing to his shoulders, his skin paled and face became pointy and sharp, especially his now hooked nose, how sickly and grim he looked now.

Henry saw the curious yet cautious expressions on the guards' faces which was understandable since the more humanoid monsters, the unassuming ones, tended to have a gimmick to their form which can sometimes be deadly and unpredictable. Not to mention that in his mask form, Henry was occasionally shedding sand and his entire being phased from opaque to translucency as he jolted from being completely present on this plane to almost vanishing. He hated this form for this exact reason, as he had no control over these shifts that violently thrashed his body, the nausea quickly building up. Once he transformed back, he would likely throw up which would not exactly give the best first impression so he did his best to hold it in.

After proving that he could transform and detransform safely and with good timing, Henry was asked what his mask's abilities were. He was expecting this, why should they accept him, what use was his mask to the city and Henry had to be honest with himself, his mask wouldn't be useful not even in a combat situation. Unless they needed someone to haunt people's dreams, his mask was not going to help society but Henry did his best to sell his mask or rather prove that he wasn't much of a threat. They first tested his weird phasing, discovering that he could not be touched or hurt during these sporadic moments. Perhaps there was still a possibility of Henry's monster form being of use to the Warren, perhaps as a guard since he was difficult to land a hit on. They then tested his strength and his claw like nails against a training dummy.

Afterwards they asked if he had anything else to show, and Henry hesitated, knowing that he had to be open and truthful and reveal all of his abilities.

"I can enter people's minds, their dreams too," Henry explained.

"You can read minds?" asked the captain of the guard.

"To an extent," he replied. "Very briefly. It will leave me vulnerable, but I can enter their minds and... effect them."

"Effect them how?"